[zamadatix]

In reply to waxedchewbacca not you Nico (he is flagged off to the point of no reply, figure this particular topic would be an exception to ignoring the comment rule):

If you're genuinely looking for an answer 5/7 of your submission history is your COVID stance. Not that this topic doesn't come up on HN, it does, but it's obviously not what the site is or is supposed to be about 70% of the time. There is no singular post to point at and say "shaddowbannable" rather a collective history of things that probably got flagged by users until it either automatically kicked in or triggered a manual review which said "yep, that's not really the primary topic here".

[WaxedChewbacca]

Sure, I appreciate your view on that. My problem with the current situation is that bricks are being thrown at my head every day on HN, but it's not considered idealogical battling when it's my opponents pulling the trigger. It only becomes idealogical battling when I start chucking bricks back.

If COVID isn't the primary topic here, then let's auto-flag all the propaganda about it coming from the likes of the NYT and Washington Post. If talking about that stuff is allowed, then... let me talk about it. I didn't want to talk about it -- users did, until I started explaining views they found jarring, at which point they flagged me into the dungeon (or whatever, I don't know exactly how it works, not that it matters).

You see what's happening. You see how this actually works. They talk about it, I respond, HN puts me in the dungeon while maintaining a facade that HN is some kind of ultra curiosity zone. Such BS.

[zamadatix]

I looked at the top 100 posts right now and only saw one about COVID, towards what I gather would be positive light in your eyes anyways. If I missed 6 that'd still be 10% of how often you feel the need to "chuck bricks" instead of talk about relevant content. Nobody's account is getting shadowbanned or rate limited for occasionally going off topic, the comparison to actions on the site's to actions on your content to your content is apples to oranges. Besides nowhere in the guidelines does it claim or encourage equal representation of off-topic conversation, it says to flag and ignore. Engaging the content doesn't "level the playing field" or anything like that it just negates your downvote/flagging and duplicates the problem.

If we all flag off-topic content and submit on topic content the ratio and discussions will actually get better. If we focus our accounts on replying to such content constantly it doesn't negate the problematic content it increases the amount.

[NicoJuicy]

"opponents" ?

It's an online forum. Nothing more, nothing less.